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How to Cheat at Marmalade

And just like that I changed my mind.
Maybe there is life left in the old blog yet. Let's see.

Seven years ago today I wrote about making marmalade and so it seems an appropriate subject with which to rekindle the blogging flame. I haven't made marmalade for a couple of years due to my family's extremely slow rate of marmalade consumption. I am actually the sole consumer. I like to have it on hand though and I like making it.

Marmalade is easy to make but it is labour intensive. The oranges must be juiced and cut into thin shreds. This can be made less of a chore by using a food processor but that is still a bit of a pain and means extra washing up. There is an easier way, a way which produces an excellent marmalade with none of the hard work.

This stuff.

Ma Made Seville oranges -a tin of ready cut Seville oranges and juice. It's available all year round and costs £2.19 for an 850g tin and makes 6 1lb jars of marmalade.

All you do is empty the contents of the tin into a big pan, add some water and sugar, stir, bring to the boil, cook for 15 mins and Bob's your marmalade. It took me 20 minutes from start to finish to produce 6 jars of homemade marmalade at a cost of 71p a jar. That should easily last me a year, but because Ma Made is available all year round it won't matter if I need to replenish my stocks in the summer when there are no Seville oranges around.

I'm a convert to this fabulous short-cut, has anyone else tried it? What did you think?

This is not a sponsored post, I shelled out my own £2.19 -money well spent.

My granny who really was a poor cook always used this stuff. I also was wondering if it was still around. Especially after spending a very long day last week boiling, chopping, shredding and covering the kitchen in molten sugar! Glad to see you back.

Wow - I wonder if that's available in Australia! I'll have to investigate. I too am the sole marmalade consumer in the household - what is wrong with people? I remember in my younger days having a go at making marmalade, boiling it until it was solid, then leaving my Mum and aunty to rescue the saucepan. That was the pinnacle of my marmalade making career but I'm tempted to try again, those jars look so good. Thanks for blogging again.

Obviously and definitely plenty of life left in the old blog yet...I'm so glad you've written about this as I've often wondered what it would be like. I love having a stash of marmalade too - it makes a great little gift - but this year, for the first time, I can't seem to muster the enthusiasm to sit peeling and pithing in our very cold cottage while my knuckles turn purple. This tin sounds extremely appeeeling and good value I think....definitely worth trying...You see how we need you?

I hate the taste of marmalade, but my husband loved it, he was the only consumer in our house. idid the full on seville orange thing for a few years and found it tedious. Then a very good cook who was a very good friend showed me her "Marmade" . Him indoors loved it and we were total converts. sadly those days are past for me , but you took me on a nice little trot down memory lane. thanks for that Mrs Fickle McFickleface, welcome home . susiestitch1 on ig and one of your many blog fan "girls'

Been using this for years. It is brilliant. I add one lemon [or two if they are smal ones]- I juice it, and then add the shredded peel to the mix. That way I can label it "St Clement's Marmalade" and give it as gifts to friends. After my Mum died, my Dad started doing that too [I supplied him with circles of fabric for the 'hats'] and then always took gifts to the kind people who invited him for meals etc because he was on his own. At his funeral, one lady said "And your father always gave us a jar of his excellent home-made marmalade. It was lovely, and you could tell it wasn't that MaMade from a tin stuff" ...I never let on! I figured that just proved how reliable MaMade is. It is often on offer in Discount/Poundshops so I usually buy a few cans when I see it cheap. Yours looks good, glowing jewel bright in the jars!!

My stepdad used to do this, whilst making a huge fuss about how wonderful it was. He was a fairly new addition to the family at the time, and no-one else even liked marmalade, so we all regarded him with bemusement as he produced jar after jar. It was nice, as far as marmalade that no-one liked goes. I was happy to see your post, after watching some incredibly plummy lady in a country house talking about how she made marmalade on the Hairy Bikers Comfort Food on iPlayer the other night. She laid all her marmaladey items out next to her Aga and went on about quality and family recipes and tradition and I thought many resentful and bitter things about privilege and having no clue.

I haven't made this in years, but you've given me inspiration to try it again. I'll try adding some lemon to half of it and ginger to the other half, as some of your other readers have suggested, for variety.

Good to see you back. I used to enjoy your blogg during my lunchtimes at work and dream of doing all the homey stuff when I retired. Now that I am, I'll have a go at this - my mum used to use it many moons ago but I didn't think it was still available.

I swear by MaMade, it never fails. I saw Seville oranges in the greengrocer this morning but wasn't tempted at all - who needs all that faffing around cutting up peel etc?! If you can find the lemon variety (Lakeland used to sell it), that's brilliant too. My mum used to add the juice of a lemon too, and I really like the tip in other comments about adding stem ginger!

So glad to see you back! I love marmalade but I'm the only one that eats it. I do make it using the Mamade. There are a couple of stores that carry it here in Alberta, Canada-Walmart and Save-on, but it is very expensive-$9-$10. The last time I made it I had bought a bag of seville oranges at the grocery store reduced to a dollar. I juiced them and added that and a pouch of pectin to the mix and it worked out really good and I got 11 jars!! I will try adding the ginger next time.

Welcome back. I usually use Seville oranges and make 2 sorts; a dark for my husband and a lighter fresher one for me. We are on holiday at the moment and not sure if there will be oranges in the shops so I'm going to try Mamade instead

It looks great. My mother, who was a great (and frugal) cook and baker, used a similar product called Mix and Made Marmalade. I haven't seen it for years. It's good to see you back Sue. I enjoy reading your ideas and those of all your commenters. It's supposed to be summer here in NZ but it's pretty dismal so making marmalade seems perfect.

Great to see you back!I am the only marmalade eater in our house so usually buy expensive jars at farmers markets,I bet they are up to a trick or two!I notice your tin says thin cut do they do a thick cut?

Hello, lovely to see a new blog post from you, I guess you might know this already but another source for prepared tins with different thicknesses of peel is Lakeland - they do a similar product I think called 'Home Cook' with different thicknesses of orange peel and a lemon and strawberry one too, it's a bit more expensive though.

My mum has always sworn by ma-made marmalade and thinks I'm bonkers for making mine from scratch. I don't know, I don't think preserving necessarily needs to be a quick thing - for me, it's about not being at work, about pottering around in the kitchen for a couple of hours at the weekend with the radio on and a brew. Lovely to see a post from you Sue. X

The lemon one is lovely if you can find it. I'm pretty sure you can only get Mamade in Tesco, Asda, Morrisons Waitrose or Ocado and then not in all stores. For abroad does The British Corner Shop Website help? https://www.britishcornershop.co.uk/hartleys-mamade-prepared-oranges-thin-cutAnd Lakeland do sell their own similar and as good tin but it is dearer. http://www.lakeland.co.uk/p13801/Prepared-Preserving-Fruit-?gclid=COOanZfN29ECFQw4GwodIEML5g&src=gpkit&s_kwcid=AL!49!3!107530817051!p!!g!!ma%20made&ef_id=WHKiyAAABEwEn6il:20170124201848:sNice to see the blog again.

Delighted to see you back, Sue - you were missed. My mum used to make Ma-made marmalade. Now you've reminded me, I'm tempted to try it. I was eyeing up the Seville oranges yesterday and decided I wasn't in the mood for the chopping but I love the smell. Trouble is, I make too much and it lasts for years as I really prefer Marmite. But it's nice to have in the cupboard - and there's always marmalade cake!

I always think marmite has much in common with marmalade -yes, they taste completely different but they're both great on toast for breakfast, they both have really strong flavours which one either loves or hates, they are both very British and they both begin with the same four letters. It feels good to be back Mary.

Obviously I'm not the only one who eagerly opened this email. Nice to see you posting again! I can't say that I've ever made marmalade, but this makes me want to give it a go. Seems a couple places in the US carry this as an import. I like to spread a layer of marmalade on the crust of a pumpkin pie before I pour the filling in. I don't know if pumpkin pie is widely appreciated in the UK. It's quite popular in the US in the autumn, especially for Thanksgiving. A very easy pie if you use canned (tinned?) pumpkin puree.

I'm still using Delia's boil the oranges first method. It makes scooping out the pith and slicing very easy. But yes it does take longer overall and the result may not be significantly superior to the tinned stuff. It's a product that has stood the test of time. Anyway. Lovely to see you back at the old alma mater.

Ah Sue, I have totally overlooked reading blogs as I have been sucked into the voyeuristic hell that is Facebook. I love reading your gems. And I love the cheat marmalade - shit hot. After the great big fucking marmalade disaster of 2012, I have steered well clear. This is a fabby idea. Welcome back to me with thee.

When I first tried it! I assumed it would be terrible, but found it brilliant! If you want to still make the most of the Seville orange season, nigella has a lovely and simple ice cream recipe which is essentially double cream and Seville orange juice and zest,frozen!

I found a recipe for Lemon Rind Marmalade. You keep all the lemon halves that you have juiced for other recipes and turn them into marmelade! Really frugal! I tried it and really loved it - unfortunately I'm the only one who likes marmelade :(

I came to your blog from Lyn at I Prefer Reading. I am enjoying looking around. I have always wanted to make marmalade but it seemed slightly intimidating--use a certain type of orange, slice the peel to a certain thickness, etc. This, however, sounds very doable. Plus, Amazon has it and I was going to place an Amazon order today anyway.